US offers $5 mn reward for Ilyas Kashmiri

The US announced a reward of $5 million on Wednesday for information leading to the arrest of HuJI commander Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, holding him responsible for a 2006 attack on its consulate in Karachi, among others.

Four people including a US diplomat died in that bombing.

Kashmiri was also 26/11 conspirator David Headley's handler in an attack they planned on a Denmark newspaper which had published a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad, considered blasphemous in Islam.

The HuJI (Harkat ul Jihad Islami) commanded is also reported to have threatened attacks in India, specifying the Commonwealth Games in 2010, the IPL and other sporting events.

An outfit he earlier headed -- Brigade 313 -- had also figured in the conversations the 26/11 terrorists were having with their handlers in Pakistan all through the time they were holed up inside their targeted buildings.

But the US announcement - by the department of state - made no mention either of Kashmiri's links to 26/11 or Headley, who has been in US custody since his arrest at an airport on his way to Denmark.

Kashmiri was first declared a "specially designated global terrorist" by the US in August 2010 and his outfit HuJI was declared a "foreign terrorist organization", restricting access to funds and material.

Ilysa Kashmiri is from Pak-occupied Kashmir and is said to have worked closely with the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. India has asked Pakistan for access to him but hasn't had much success.

He is suspected of trying to assassinate Pervez Musharraf when he was president.